Leadership (Abuja)
Edem Edem
21 April 2008
Abuja — Ultra modern multi-million naira Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre, University of Calabar has been commissioned. The Centre, AfriHUB ICT, has 350 computers, 2.5 megabits per second bandwidth, a cyber centre with 150 workstations, five well- equipped classrooms with 20 computers each, a functional business centre and a conference room with video conferencing capacity.
This facility, like its counterpart in AfriHUB at UniZik Awka, UNN Nsukka and Enugu Campuses, provides the critical combination of infrastructure, telecommunications services, IT-training and management necessary to unleash the power of IT, to foster human capacity building throughout Nigeria. With the Unical ICT Center, the University once isolated in beautiful Calabar, is now globally connected, and has become a University on the net.
Speaking at a brief commissioning ceremony at the University on Thursday, the President/CEO, AfriHUB Nigeria LTD, Prof. Manny C. Aniebonam, said to fully connect the rest of the campus on the net, the UNICAL campus network will soon be initiated, to be completed later in the year, with all administrative and academic blocks wired via point-2-Multipoint connectivity.
The Wi/Fi-WI/MAX connectivity, according to the President/CEO, when completed, will give anyone at this great institution with over 30,000 students, access to global resources via the internet anywhere on campus. "This indeed will be a revolutionary in the annals of academic excellence at UNICAL", the CEO said.
One major resource soon to be housed at the centre, CEO further said, is the Academic course ware from MIT, Boston Massachusetts USA, recently acquired by AfriHUB for all Institutions where they operate, "this Institution will never be the same with these resources, as teachers and students will have access to over 1,750 academic curricula, course materials and programmes of global relevance" Aniebonam added.
Vice-chancellor of the University, Prof. Bassey Asuquo, thanked the Federal Government for the recognition accorded the University to the extent of siting the project in the institution. He promised to take adequate care of the facility.
Cutting the tape to commission the project on behalf of the Governor Liyel Imoke, the deputy governor, Barrister Effiok Cobham, commended the Private Partnership Initiative, which he noted has brought the project to reality. The project, which for now is mainly for students and academic and non-academic staff, will attract meager amounts. Students will pay N5000.00 for a six-week programme as against N35,000 or N40,000 collected in similar Institutions offering ITC programmes.
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